On Sacred Healing

Sebastian and Brian discuss the sacred history of healing, from its roots in pre-Christian rites of anointing and balance to its transfiguration in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church. Moving between early Christian miracle accounts, medieval herbals, Byzantine hospitals, and the writings of Hildegard of Bingen and St Basil the Great, they considers how health was once conceived not as the absence of illness, but as a harmony between body, soul, and the divine order. Along the way, the conversation draws contrasts with modern biomedicine, recovering an older, metaphysically rich vision in which suffering is not meaningless.